


twenty years

by cinerious



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Gen, im bored, listen i dont know what this is okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-06 01:32:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6732442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinerious/pseuds/cinerious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Where do you see yourself in twenty years?</p><p>Or, three ways Tim's future could go, and the one way he'd actually like.</p>
            </blockquote>





	twenty years

**Author's Note:**

> I was rereading red robin because I am trash and dearly miss pre-52 tim, and there was this one part when he'd with cass and he get's asked where he sees himself in twenty years, and then there were three different futures he saw, and idk i found that kinda interesting.  
> Also, i was just really bored.

_where do you see yourself in twenty years?_

 

Eight words.

It is one of the hardest questions he has ever heard in his life and hard questions are his  _thing-_ he's supposed to puzzle over them and figure them out before anyone else and come up with six contingency plans in case things go south and, well. 

Maybe this is why he sees three futures flash before his eyes.

They go like this. 

 

I.)

He's dead. Gone. Six feet under, and all of the above. 

Dead at 37 isn't what he hopes for, he guesses, but does he really mind? In his area of work every  _day_ seems like a miracle- the fact that he's home at three in the morning, the fact that he doesn't sleep or eat or talk to his old friends anymore until he absolutely has to (because who has that much  _time?_ )- he's grateful for everything because at least it means he's still here to live and breathe for another 24 hours.

37 years? They would have been a damn good 37 years.

Would he have a family by then, or would it still just be him and Dick and Jason and Damian running around Gotham in capes and cowls- older, maybe, but still pushing each others buttons till the very end. He wouldn't have it any other way.

And his gravestone. Probably would say something ironic, he thinks. As long as Jason and Damian aren't in charge of whatever goes on it, he's pretty sure he'll be okay. 

Tam will leave him flowers maybe. Or Steph. Or someone. Maybe Kon. 

In the end, 37 years would have been worth it.

_Here lies Timothy Drake. He lived so others wouldn't die. He died so others could live._

 

II.)

The bat logo is red this time around, which, thinking on it, looks really good on black, he should let Dick know the next time he's in Gotham.

Except.

Dick isn't here anymore. 

He isn't sure what could have happened- maybe he got tired of the costume and decided to hang it up, but then who would be the Batman? Maybe he took over as CEO of Wayne Enterprises. Hell, he might be dead. Who knows?

The point is, that in this future, at this point in time, Bruce isn't in the suit. Dick isn't in the suit. 

He's Batman now, and what with the red insignia and all, he's sure Cass will never let him live it down. 

He wonders what kind of Bat he would be- ruthless? Pragmatic? 

(he wouldn't let himself near that suit in any kind of future if he could help it)

In this future, he is 37 years old. In this future, he is Batman, and in this future, he feels like he would be more alone than ever. There'd be the Justice League, and he's sure he'd still be working with the Titans, but  _still._ He's seen Bruce take measures he would be too afraid to, he's seen Dick, the most friendly guy he knows turn into this intimidating persona that still scares the shit out of him.

It's a future. He'd just not sure that it's the future he wants.

 

III.)

And then there's idealism.

Hope.

There's also a dog.

He's sitting in the middle of a cluttered little apartment (except not that little, because like it or not, being associated with Wayne Enterprises comes along with money), and there's a  _dog._

The rest of this future doesn't hit him, but the idea of being able to settle down enough to have a pet, one that he'd actually have the time to take  _care of_? That's probably what he'd want in twenty years the most.

He figures he'd still put the costume on sometimes, maybe make a new one in the case that he actually managed to put on a few inches in twenty years (Alfred in his ear- coffee stunts growth, Master Tim, maybe if you stopped using it as a life force?) Maybe Damian will be Batman by then. Or maybe, and this might be the most inane thought he's had such far, but  _stick with him_ , because this future is hopeful and idealistic and improbable- maybe by then they don't need to go out and risk their lives every day fighting people who make a lifestyle of ruining others.

He can see himself and Kon and Wally being able to just sit around in the Tower and he can imagine the constant knot of worry that lives inside every one of them slowly unravel until it's nothing more than a straggling strand.

He is still 37 in this future. It is still twenty years later. But this could be the best future, he thinks. 

Maybe in this future, he's  _happy._

 


End file.
